NNPA NEWSWIRE — When announcing plans to forgive as much as $20,000 in student loans, Biden said provisions in the American Rescue Plan would render the forgiven debt non-taxable. However, the law doesn’t exempt loan forgiveness at the state level. The post 13 States Set to Tax Student Loan Forgiveness first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia

According to an analysis by the Tax Foundation, as many as 13 states will consider President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness a taxable event, levying as much as $1,100 in taxes to some borrowers who receive a $10,000 break.

When announcing plans to forgive as much as $20,000 in student loans, Biden said provisions in the American Rescue Plan would render the forgiven debt non-taxable.

However, the law doesn’t exempt loan forgiveness at the state level.

“As a general rule, a discharge of indebtedness counts as income and is taxable,” Jared Walczak wrote for the Tax Foundation.

“Under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), however, the forgiveness of student loan debt between 2021 and 2025 does not count toward federal taxable income. States which follow the federal treatment here will likewise exclude debt forgiveness from their own state income tax bases.

“But, for a variety of reasons, not every state does that. There are at least six relevant interactions with the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) for purposes of the treatment of student loan debt cancellation.”

Those receiving $10,000 in loan forgiveness are now facing the following tax penalties in the following states:

Walczak said those amounts double for individuals receiving $20,000 in debt relief.

He noted that in several other states, tax officials have indicated that there will be no tax on student loan debt discharge despite ambiguity in state law.

“California, for instance, does not conform to a post-ARPA version of the IRC but has a provision in existing law exempting student loans canceled according to income-based repayment programs,” Walczak wrote.

“Legislation expressly conforming to the new federal law failed, but state revenue officials seem to be taking the position that the forgiveness announced by the Biden administration will be covered by the existing law.”

Similarly, Walczak noted that officials in Pennsylvania have announced that the Biden administration’s cancellation of student loan debt is not taxable.

In the coming weeks and months, Walczak added that it’s likely that additional states would issue guidance on the treatment of discharged student loan debt and perhaps even adopt legislative fixes, causing this list to dwindle.

While the debt – if retained – would have been paid over a period of years, the debt cancellation is included in income in the year it is taxed.

The post 13 States Set to Tax Student Loan Forgiveness first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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WESTSIDE GAZETTE — The bleeding man was crying out, but the man standing over him aimed his gun down at the man on the floor and shot again, and again. Erica lived in the projects. Shootings were not uncommon. But this was the first time she had experienced the trauma of watching someone die. The ordeal lasted years as she was called to testify. “The lawyer suggested to my parents that I get counselling.” Erica recalls, “In a community where we didn’t put a lot of emphasis on mental health, I was very appreciative that my parents accepted the advice.” She processed and healed but she can still hear the dying man crying out, “Somebody, please help me.” The post From One Death – Dr. Erica Walton’s Story first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By Dixie Ann Black | The Westside Gazette

The sound of the gunshot filled the little Liberty City corner store.

The man fell, blood splattering the items on the convenience store shelves.

Little Erica was only a few steps away. She watched in horror as the man’s body hit the floor. The sound of the gunshot continued to reverberate through her ten-year-old body. She grabbed her head and ducked down to the floor to hide as the sound exploded in her eardrums.

“Somebody help me please! Please, somebody help me!” the gunshot victim lay on the convenience store floor begging for his life as the child watched. Erica was scared out of her mind, but all she could think was, I wish I could help him. I wish I could do something to help him.

A few seconds earlier, this man and another man had been arguing while Erica was paying the cashier for her chips. Now she watched with horror as the man with the gun walked over to the man on the floor.

“I’m sorry man, I’m sorry!”

The bleeding man was crying out, but the man standing over him aimed his gun down at the man on the floor and shot again, and again.

Erica lived in the projects. Shootings were not uncommon. But this was the first time she had experienced the trauma of watching someone die. The ordeal lasted years as she was called to testify.

“The lawyer suggested to my parents that I get counselling.” Erica recalls, “In a community where we didn’t put a lot of emphasis on mental health, I was very appreciative that my parents accepted the advice.” She processed and healed but she can still hear the dying man crying out,

That voice has fueled a yearning to help save lives. It has guided her like a beacon, all the way through medical school. Walton specifically wanted to return to the community that showed the need for help, even as it supported her in her dream of becoming a doctor.

“I really had support poured into me by anyone who knew I was going to medical school,” Walton says of her hometown. Yet she admits that the journey has not been a cushy one. She experienced further traumas while growing up within an underserved community. She witnessed domestic abuse, experienced the divorce of her parents and many of the losses that come along with a fractured family. However, she is grateful for her blended family of six siblings and a stepmother, who came along in time to become her biggest cheerleader as she pursued her career goals. She sees her husband Michael as making her a better person, by strengthening her in hard times. She calls him “the yin to my yang.”

Now Dr. Erica Walton has been practicing medicine since 2010. She attended Fisk University and went to Northwestern Medical School but returned to University of Miami to fulfill her residency in South Florida. She worked as a family medical practitioner but was recruited to take over the HIV clinic at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami in 2014. After undergoing a stringent AIDS Education and Training program with special training in immunology she was further equipped to work with HIV patients.

“Growing up in an underserved community and seeing the disadvantages firsthand fostered in me a passion to address these issues.” Dr. Walton went on to underscore the effect of dietary choices on minorities. She is constantly educating her patients by telling them about the effects of high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes. She tells her patients,

“Your HIV isn’t going to kill you, but you have these things….”

Walton was fortunate to have a professor at Fisk University who understood and addressed the pull of heritage. She is quick to point out to her patients that she grew up on the staples of a typical African American household, but through her education at Fisk she redirects her patients toward eating more nutritional versions of the foods they love.

“What people eat is rooted in their traditions, so let’s just prepare them in a way that’s not bad for you,” she tells her patients.

In addition to trying to save her patients through nutritional overhauls, Dr. Walton also attacks the “viral load” (how much of the virus is in the system) and works on keeping the immune system healthy. She points out that if the immune system is healthy, it reduces the power of co-morbidities such as heart disease, hepatitis, diabetes and more.

Dr. Walton has won two awards from the Ryan White Program for the control of HIV. The program focuses on the uninsured in each county and the effects of the services they receive.

She has been the Medical Director of the AHF Healthcare Center -Biscayne for over two years now. Some patients have moved with her from other locations because of the deep respect she shows to them. She credits this deep respect to her relationship with God. She thanks her stepmother for re-introducing her to the church after her childhood trauma and instilling confidence in her.

“In medical school I was one of only five people of color in a school of about three hundred students.” Walton pointed out the temptation to feel inferior in such a setting. Instead, she now uses the confidence she gained to encourage her patients,

“I tell my HIV folks; I want you to know you are coming to someone who does not look down on you. You are not going to die from this, and this does not define you.”

She answers the cries for help in obvious and subtle ways. One young patient with no support system was at death’s door yet refused to take medications. She treated him and called him daily to encourage him until he was recovered enough to return to his home state.

“He was the sickest person I’d ever seen, and I was able to make him feel like his life was valuable.”

In this way, that dying man’s request on the convenience store floor, “Somebody help me please!” Is answered every day.

Dr. Walton’s journey in helping to answer that request, shines light on the fact that, once again, one man’s death can result in the saving of many others.

The post From One Death – Dr. Erica Walton’s Story appeared first on The Westside Gazette.

The post From One Death – Dr. Erica Walton’s Story first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

ARIZONA INFORMANT — “For the past 11 years, the Arizona Black Rodeo kicks off with fans filling the stands for two great shows to witness African-American competitors from across the country,” said Lanette Campbell, founder and coordinator of the rodeo. “The rodeo has become one of the most popular events in the African-American community and is attended by thousands of in-state and out-of-state fans” The post Its Rodeo Time first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By Dee Ford Byas | The Arizona Informant

Set your Labor Day Weekend off with the annual Arizona Black Rodeo on Friday andSaturday, Sept. 2-3, at WestWorld of Scottsdale (16601 N. Pima Road), and join thousands for the most anticipated African American cultural and educational community event.

The two-hour shows, at 7pm both days, showcases local and national African-American rodeo competitors, features bull riding, tie down roping, steer wrestling, steer undecorating, ladies barrel racing, relay races and “the crowd favorite mutton bustin’ and calf scramble for the little ones,” according to a press release, announcing the “hot- test show on dirt.”

“For the past 11 years, the Arizona Black Rodeo kicks off with fans filling the stands for two great shows to witness African-American competitors from across the country,” said Lanette Campbell, founder and coordinator of the rodeo. “The rodeo has become one of the most popular events in the African-American community and is attended by thousands of in-state and out-of-state fans”

This article originally appeared in The Arizona Informant.

The post Its Rodeo Time first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The Poetry Foundation partnered with Lord Cultural Resources, a global practice leader in cultural sector planning, to assist in its strategic planning process. In addition to gathering insights from Foundation staff, a key aspect of this process was the Audience Perception Survey which provided invaluable insights from the public on how people in the literary world perceive the Foundation and how they think it can grow. The post PRESS ROOM: Poetry Foundation Announces New Strategic Plan to Serve as Roadmap first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

CHICAGO, IL – The Poetry Foundation is proud to introduce its new Strategic Plan, a three-year plan designed to address the immediate needs of the Foundation and lay the groundwork for the road ahead. Since June 2020, the Foundation has been actively evolving into a more transparent and anti-racist organization that better reflects, respects, and represents the poetry ecosystem; part of that process was the development of this strategic plan, the Foundation’s first since 2006.

The Foundation partnered with Lord Cultural Resources, a global practice leader in cultural sector planning, to assist in its strategic planning process. In addition to gathering insights from Foundation staff, a key aspect of this process was the Audience Perception Survey which provided invaluable insights from the public on how people in the literary world perceive the Foundation and how they think it can grow.

Strategic Plan Highlights One main focus of the Strategic Plan was to adopt sharing as a central value of the organization. As a result, Poetry Foundation board, president, and staff collaboratively participated in this months-long process designed to underline the principles reflecting diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and commitment to anti-racism in all forms. The process entailed revisiting the mission and vision, crafting core values, setting impactful goals and developing measurable objectives.

Here are the new organizational statements to ensure that the values and ethos of the Poetry Foundation are in sync with its current trajectory.

In addition, three ambitious strategic goals and associated objectives were developed to guide the organization for the next three years. They include:

The Strategic Plan is not the end of the Poetry Foundation’s work, but the beginning. The board, staff, audiences, peers, and partners have collaborated to craft a plan that allows the Foundation to embrace and celebrate its legacy while reimagining the organization’s impact and future. More can be found at PoetryFoundation.org

Changes to Poetry Foundation Structure  The development and implementation of a strategic plan is one of many steps the Foundation is taking to better serve poets and poetry audiences more equitably. There have been several touchpoints, including analysis, research, assessments, and planning workshops.

One considerable change is the new structure of the Foundation. The Poetry Foundation has existed as a private operating foundation, furthering its mission through programs and direct charitable activities, with grantmaking not being central to its work.

The Foundation is pivoting to a private non-operating foundation structure, meaning that it can expand its focus to include a more robust grantmaking component. With this expansion, the Foundation expects to annually spend an amount that is at least roughly 5% of its asset size on programs, direct charitable activities, and grants.

Changes to Foundation Grantmaking The Renewal and Recovery grants program launched in April 2022, continuing the Poetry Foundation’s commitment to and support of poetry and affiliated arts organizations struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was open to those who received Emergency Grants from the Poetry Foundation in 2020–2021, through which more than $2 million were dispersed.

There is a final round of relief funding in 2022 totaling $1 million. A list of 2022 Renewal and Recovery grant recipients can be found here. The Renewal and Recovery grants are unrestricted and can be used for general operating support. Grants range in size from $5,000–$20,000 based on the size of organizational budgets and other considerations.

As announced in December 2021, the Poetry Foundation has committed $9 million over three years, beginning in 2022. Grants will support US-based nonprofit organizations through the following priorities:

Those with questions about the current state of grantmaking at the Foundation are encouraged to visit the Grants FAQ.

Poetry Forward These changes come in time for the 110th anniversary of Poetry magazine, which was founded by Harriet Monroe and first published in October 1912. Starting this fall, the Poetry Foundation will celebrate the creative spirit that has run through those 110 years and how it might continue to move and evolve in the future.

This includes the announcement of 2022 Pegasus Awards winners, the first issue of Poetry from new editor Adrian Matejka, a fresh calendar of free poetry events, the first season of the VS podcast with its new cohosts, partnerships with other members of the literary world, and more that has yet to be imagined.

All of it informed by the Poetry Foundation’s new mission:

The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. We work to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry.

The post PRESS ROOM: Poetry Foundation Announces New Strategic Plan to Serve as Roadmap first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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Onesimus. It is a name we don’t hear when we look at the history of vaccinations, but in the United States we owe a debt of gratitude to an African Slave named, Onesimus. In this video, voiced by writer and political activist, Baratunde Thurston, learn how Onesimus shared a traditional African inoculation technique that saved countless live from Smallpox and become the foundation for vaccine as we know them today, including the COVID Vaccine.